Friday, March 28, 2014

Developers strive to write well-tested, reusable code with well-defined interfaces so that when they need to update the functionality, they need do so in one place only. It is the principle of ‘Don’t Repeat Yourself’ (D.R.Y.).

However, it is common for developers to be poor at applying D.R.Y. to their own past work. When it comes time to implement some complex new routine, a faint bell rings in their mind…didn’t I write something similar for that CRM project? What year was that…? If a brute-force search through their chaotic script archive doesn’t unearth it, within a few minutes, they then roll up sleeves, crack knuckles and set about writing it again from scratch, convinced they will do a better job of it this time, anyway: And, after all, it’s fun.

However, what if you really don’t have time to write the code from scratch, or need some pointers to get started? You might trawl a few of your favorite blogs, or find something on Stack Overflow. After all, many developers and DBAs blog all sorts of snippets and scripts, suggesting hopefully that they may be useful to others, but admitting that their main motivation is to know where to come the next time they need it themselves!

Another option, when in need of SQL code, is to search a public script archive such as the one on SQLServerCentral.com. This always used to be a tricky operation. If, for example, we wanted a string-splitting function, we’d need to type into Google something like ‘site:www.sqlservercentral.com/Scripts/ list split‘. Now it is so much easier, with the addition of a small SSMS plug-in called SQL Scripts.

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In addition, you can search the whole archive directly from within SSMS, as well as add scripts to your briefcase and to the archive as a whole.

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If you’re an occasional or frequent miner of the SSC script archive, we’d love you to try out SQL Scripts and let us know what you think. How much might it help you reuse the code of others, as well as find and reuse your own?

We just don't see SSMS plugins often enough. This one looks interesting and pretty useful for both the DBA and SQL Dev...